Hugh Wardell-Yerburgh Explained

Birth Date:11 January 1938
Death Date:28 January 1970 (aged 32)
Death Place:Chertsey, Surrey, UK
Height:1.89m (06.2feet)
Weight:83kg (183lb)
Sport:Rowing
Show-Medals:yes

Hugh Arthur Wardell-Yerburgh (11 January 1938  - 28 January 1970) was a British schoolmaster and rower. He won a silver medal in the coxless fours event at the 1964 Summer Olympics, together with John Russell, William Barry and John James.

Early life

Wardell-Yerburgh was the younger son of Geoffrey Bassett Wardell-Yerburgh, by his marriage in 1935 to Elizabeth Alis Georgina Kenyon, a daughter of G. L. T. Kenyon, a grandson of Lloyd Kenyon, 3rd Baron Kenyon. He had an older brother, Oswald Kenyon Wardell-Yerburgh (born 1936).[1] They were grandsons of Oswald Wardell-Yerburgh (1858–1913).

When Wardell-Yerburgh was a small boy, the family lived at Carlingford House, East Harptree, near to his grandmother, Edith Wardell-Yerburgh. On 15 February 1944, when he was six, his father died, leaving an estate valued at £27,227.[2] He was brought up by his mother, who went to live at Meadow View, Westbury, Wiltshire.[1] He was educated at Ravenscroft School, Eton College, and Bristol University, where he took a degree in aeronautical engineering. For his National Service, he served for eighteen months in the Royal Artillery.[1]

Career

A successful oarsman at Eton and Bristol, in 1964 Wardell-Yerburgh rowed for Great Britain in the Coxless Fours at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, gaining a Silver medal. From 1966 to 1968, he returned to Eton as a schoolmaster.[3]

In 1968 he won the Diamond Challenge Sculls (the premier singles sculls event) at the Henley Royal Regatta, rowing for the Eton Vikings.[4] The same year, he joined Plessey as a Senior Radar Systems Analyst.[3]

Private life

In 1966 Wardell-Yerburgh married Janet (Poppy) Bewley Cathie, an Olympic fencer. They had one daughter, Atlanta Jane Kenyon Wardell-Yerburgh, born in 1969, who waseducated at Worcester College, Oxford and became a chartered accountant.[3]

Wardell-Yerburgh died in a traffic accident in 1970, aged only 32. He was then living at Mallards Reach, Ham Island, Old Windsor, and left an estate valued at £22,570.[5]

Notes and References

  1. Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage (Debrett's, 1969), p. 623
  2. "WARDELL-YERBURGH Geoffrey Basset of Carlingford House East Harptree" in Wills and Administrations 1944 (England and Wales) (1945), p. 606
  3. Peter Yerburgh, Vol. 134, yarbroughfamily.org, p. 33
  4. Web site: Diamond Challenge Sculls, List of past winners . Henley Royal Regatta . 5 August 2024.
  5. "WARDELL-YERBURGH Hugh Arthur of Mallards Reach Ham Island Old Windsor Berks… £22570" in Wills and Administrations 1971 (England and Wales) (1972), p. 576